Raw Preview: The Beast is Back… Full-Time?

We’re just a few short weeks away from the Royal Rumble, where the road to WrestleMania will kick off in earnest. What’s on deck for tonight’s show? Let’s break it down.

Brock Lesnar returns tonight for the first time since his shockingly short defeat at the hands of Goldberg at Survivor Series. Generally, we’d expect this to mean that Paul Heyman would deliver a quick (but compelling) speech about how the Beast is still the baddest, but there’s a further wrinkle that could make things more interesting.

Lesnar is scheduled for almost every single Raw from here to WrestleMania, and it’s tough to imagine all those appearances passing without a single moment of in-ring competition–even if only in squash matches. Brock’s practically a full-time wrestler for the next few months, and it will be interesting to see how WWE tries to keep the hype up for the Conqueror.

WWE is also advertising “the new faces of Raw” and going on to describe Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, and Roman Reigns. That leads me to believe WWE doesn’t understand what “new” means or they haven’t been watching their own flagship show lately. The status quo is a bit different this week, with Jericho as US (and consequently Grand Slam) Champion and Roman having failed to overcome the odds on the last edition of Raw. Does that mean the never-ending feud involving these three is ending? Well, at least not until the Royal Rumble.

Raw’s two major women’s feuds–Sasha Banks vs Nia Jax and Bayley vs Charlotte for the Women’s Championship–are also continuing tonight. Bayley and Charlotte are scheduled to settle things at the Rumble, and don’t be surprised if Sasha vs Nia joins the show to fill out the midcard.

We’ve got one more title in a holding pattern until the Rumble–Rich Swann’s Cruiserweight Championship. Evil Neville is by far the hottest thing in the division right now, and it seems inevitable that he’ll claim the title.

Also, you can count on more entrants in the Rumble itself. And Emmalina’s appearance–at least in video package form.

There’s also speculation that Triple H will be making his return this evening, due to the latest in a series of Seth Rollins tweets about trying to track down his would-be WrestleMania rival. Social media tease or actual story development? We’ll find out tonight.

Raw is in the Verizon Arena in North Little Rock, AR tonight, broadcast live on the USA Network at 8PM Eastern/7PM Central. We’ll have live coverage tonight as always, so stick with us here, on Twitter, and on Facebook for everything as it happens!